New England has nurtured countless women who shook off traditional gender roles to forge their own destinies. Their achievements are legion. Narragansett tribal historian Princess Red Wing served as a delegate to the United Nations and co-founded Rhode Island’s Tomaquag Museum. Boston iconoclast Isabella Stewart Gardner had the acute artistic vision to establish the museum that bears her name. Harriet Beecher Stowe ignited public opinion against slavery, arguably hastening the Civil War, as displays in her Hartford home make clear. Pioneering naturalist Rachel Carson jumpstarted the modern environmental movement with her writings about the rocky beaches and quivering tidepools of Southport, Maine.
New England's Notable Women
shines the spotlight on 45 of these trailblazers and achievers and directs readers to the homes and sites throughout New England where their stories come to life.